Ever since the band emerged on the music scene in the mid-1980s, Megadeth has been a mainstay of the metal genre.
Sadly, frontman Dave Mustaine is confirming that the band has reached the end of the line, with a degenerative health condition forcing him into retirement.
During a Q&A at New York’s Kaufman Music Center — coinciding with the recent release of his new memoir, “In My Darkest Hour” — Mustaine confirmed that Megadeth had played its last show.
“I have an injury to my hand,” the singer and guitarist explained (via Rolling Stone), holding up his hand to demonstrate his affliction to the audience.
“Some of you can see it. I’ve got what’s called Dupuytren’s contracture,” he explained. “In the center of my hand, the tendons have grown together and are pulling my finger down.”
That condition is continually worsening, and has contemplated undergoing corrective surgery.
“So I have the option at some point to do surgery, and I figured I would do this tour and do the support for this record and at that point, we’ll see what the technology’s like,” he added.
While he’d considered laying down his guitar and just singing, he ultimately decided against that path.
“I think about, ‘Could I carry on if I just sang?’ I wouldn’t want to do that,” he said. “I would want to play guitar, because that’s my love.”
‘A Perfect Time’
Back in August 2025, Mustaine announced that he planned to pack it in after the release of the band’s “Megadeth” album and subsequent world tour.
“If there was ever a perfect time to tour the world, it’s now,” he wrote on the band’s website at the time.
“This is also a perfect time for us to tell you that it’s our last studio album.”
When that album was released in January 2026, “Megadeth” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
“It’s a great feeling,” he told the audience of going out on a high note.
More Music to Come?
Having completed the band’s final tour, Mustaine admitted the experience had been bittersweet.
“There’s times when we take the stairs in the back, and walking up the stairs … I say, ‘It’s your stage,’ and I go up there and do my job,” he said during the Q&A, revealing that recording made during the tour may form the basis of a potential live album down the road.
“If we were to want to, say, have some live recordings of us playing songs for the future, it might be a good idea to record a bunch of different live tracks,” Mustaine explained. “But yeah, we’re going to have fun doing it, regardless of whatever we’re going to do.”
Mustaine also teased the possiblity of future studio releases, comprised of outtakes and unreleased material from over the years.
“There’s bits and pieces and little stuff like that,” he said. “There’s a couple completed songs from the last album with [bassist] James [LoMenzo], [guitaist] Teemu [Mäntysaari] and [drummer] Dirk [Verbeuren], that we did not release yet. But I think those are supposed to be bonus tracks for the label or something. … There may be a song or something, but I don’t know.”
Comments
Iconic Metal Frontman Confirms Retirement at 65 Due to Medical Concerns